Emraan Hashmi promises third gore installment, unapologetic about having started a trend in Bollywood, franchise will continue with him.

Murder 3 is definitely on the cards. We haven’t started work on a script yet, but it should flag off by mid-2012. We have no choice. After the super success of Murder (2004) and Murder 2, we have to take the franchise forward,” asserts Emraan Hashmi, unfazed by the scathing criticism his straggly locks, tattooed six-pack and bored disinterest in Jacqueline Fernandes has drawn, along with an almost nauseating reaction to the relentless blood fest.

He points out that like Hollywood’s Kill Bill (2003), Murder 2 also has no reference point in Bollywood. “We’ve not seen a movie as gory as this one before. Maybe two per cent of the ‘enlightened’ audience didn’t have the stomach for it, but going by box-office figures, the remaining 89 per cent seem to have digested it well,” he reasons. “I see it becoming a trendsetter for violent entertainers in stark, semi-realistic settings that mirror a society where the Nithari killings brought cannibalism into our homes in the 21st century.”

Recalling how the censors refused a U/A certificate to the film’s first promos because of a line that went, ‘Tere tukde kare char’ (will cut you into four pieces), Emraan argues that news channels had gone to town about how Neeraj Grover’s body was chopped into 500 pieces by Emile Jerome Joseph in the Maria Susairaj case. He admits that maybe his dad didn’t “get it” but today’s generation connected with it going by the deafening response to his entry scene. And the clapping and whistling was not limited to the single screens. It continued into the usually-not-so-vocal multiplexes too.

“Even my wife liked it,” smiles Emraan. “And given that it got the second biggest opening after Ready, I’d say that today, as a dependable star, I’m second only to Salman Khan, though I’ve never walked the traditional path.” He begins work on 3D Raaz 3 next and says the plan is for the Raaz sequel to surpass the numbers of Murder 2. But Murder 3, when it happens, will be bigger, better and bloodier. Will he be part of it? “Of course,” he asserts. ”They cannot make a Murder film without me.”